Erastus R. Ditmore, a resident of the Ninth District, engaged in stock raising and farming, was the son of Benson and Mary (Manrey) Ditmore, and was born in Cherokee County, N.C., in 1861, and is of a family of sixteen children; thirteen of them are still living. The father was of Scotch-Irish extraction, born in Charleston, S.C., in 1816. The grandfather was a native of Ireland, and immigrated to Charleston, S.C., where he died. The name was then McDitmore, but the Mc was finally dropped. As his father died when he was young, Benson came with his mother to East Tennessee, where he was educated. When twenty-two he married Miss Mary Manrey. After his marriage he went to North Carolina and farmed until 1884, when he moved to Texas, where he still lives. Mrs. Ditmore was born in McMinn County in 1826. Our subject, E. R. Ditmore, remained at home until seventeen years of age, then moved to Simpson County, Ky., and taught school for one term, and in 1879 went to Shelby County, Ill., and worked on a farm for two months; then returned to Kentucky and attended school a few months; then went to Gibson County, and from there to Newbern. In 1885 he married Mrs. Martha E. Parker, daughter of D. V. Allen, and has since lived on his farm on 208 acres two miles east of Newbern, and though a young man, is one of the progressive farmers of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Ditmore are Cumberland Presbyterians. She was born in Dyer County, and is of Germanic ancestry.